‘Not Insane!’ | Andrew Katzenstein The Firesign Theatre, a comedy group formed in the 1960s, created surreal albums that mixed satire and science fiction, and inspired a generation of misfits.

The Firesign Theatre was “dissenting to just about everything, for the same reason all great satirists do: savage indignation at greed and folly.” —Andrew Katzenstein

excerpt from an article on the Firesign Theater by Andrew Katzenstein in the New York Review of Books: "By contrast, on I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus (1971 Firesign turned Nixon into a holographic computer program that responds to citizens questions with prerecorded banalities like "When you clock the human race with the stopwatch of history, it's a new record every time.' (Braddock explains that the hologram president grew out of Proctor's encounter with ELIZA, the first chatbot, at a work fair in LA.)"

warnings were issued, and ignored

gotta admit I'm one of those annoying people who abandoned REM after the middle-8 of Cuyahoga (I'll spin Lightnin Hopkins to see if I can be enlightened tho!)

Hi! (I'm not that social on the media.)

Terrific take. I look forward to reading!

West of the Fields is a ripper though

Thank you, Andrew Katzenstein

"anyone loving difficult people"!

I'm not at all shocked to find Kate Culkin's terrific Emerson's Daughters on this list! @klculkin.bsky.social

Along with @jbraddock.bsky.social and @jordanrbrower.bsky.social ,I'm helping to organize a convergence of sorts for ASAP/17 in Madison, WI, Oct 15-17! @asapartsnow.bsky.social

Propose papers here: asap17.exordo.com/login?redire...

One other goddamned thing
Blue Jam and Firesign theatre Are not great comparisons
They are way different in humor

Firesign theatre is like ween plus shoegaze

Blue jam is Francis bacon and Peter greenway backed by coil

for real! Even one collaboration with a comprehending band (it could have been the Byrds even) would have meant they would have been remembered differently.

Just want to be clear that *I* am not dunking on a (positive) NYRB (!) review. But I do really appreciate Riggsveda sticking up for the female Firesign fans.

also "Firesign is Ween plus shoegaze" is genius and I urge its adoption in place of "Beatles of comedy" or "movies for the mind"

I seem to remember that there was a version done some years ago featuring (I think) Damon Albarn and some other semi-random people. I think I might have it somewhere... for our next sesh

@idlerat.bsky.social alert -->

Firesign Theatre
David Salzberg

Featured in the New York Review of Books
April 9 2026
The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums
By Jeremy Braddock
Philip Proctor
David Ossman
Peter Bergman
Phil Austin

Firesign in NYRB ---->

Best day:
-Browsing for hours to find the album worth spending my meager babysitting fund.
-The clerk who got me to buy a Firesign Theater album by acting out his fav bits.
-Sliding my fingernail along the plastic wrapper to take out the record.
-Reading the cover while listening to the music.

Very New Year, Jane

everywhere it's Christmas the Beatles Christmas records and the Beatles-Firesign connection

"Happy Chrimble and a Very New Year!"
@firesigntheatre.bsky.social

B-17 Bomber Intellivision Intellivoice Game Gameplay YouTube video by The No Swear Gamer

Was reminded the other day that the barely-recognizable processed voices for the pilot and the bombardier in this game were Phil Austin and Phil Proctor of the Firesign Theatre.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM1E...

Photo of a magic 8 ball with a 'goatse' version of the OpenAI logo and the words ChatGPT on it, next to a white box that says "ChatGPT offline version". Inset are photos of the 8-ball responses such as "That's a great question", "You're 1000% right" and "Too many requests try again later" and then another photo from the back of the box of a holographic authenticity sticker that says FAKE.

After much research and development I have made an offline version of ChatGPT.

Now you can save water and electricity while navel-gazing, and carry one of the world's most powerfully annoying AI chatbots in your pocket.

Man in all the times I've heard that song I never allowed myself to hear "sweet banana"

Trailing Clouds of Glory vernacular Firesign Theatre scholarship of 1974

Found this very late in the game -> an early and great stab at describing @firesigntheatre.bsky.social via the Situationists. Fun to read and not pedantic; fans who listened to the records, read some theory and did their own thing.

The Firesign Theatre's radio sources 9 short essays on the sources for How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All

for the occasion I also pulled together the full series of audio posts that I wrote about Firesign and radio history this fall. These spoke more and more about the contemporary sitch as they went on.
@firesigntheatre.bsky.social @bartona104.bsky.social

Thanks, @bartona104.bsky.social for inviting me onto her great Continuous Wave newsletter. This week's installment features an excerpt from the radio/How Can You Be in Two Places at Once chapter of Firesign (with color photos). @firesigntheatre.bsky.social @ucpress.bsky.social

Outer Perimeter, by Presage 4 track album

An excellent idea. Do you know this one? Sort of the opposite of Tangerine Dream, but a pretty great appropriation of EYKIW mrdibbs.bandcamp.com/album/outer-...

(unintentionally sanctimonious post, above ^)

Satire is complicated in ways that the satirists sometimes don't consider. Kind of amazing that the Onion has stayed strong all these years (or is once again strong)

v. sorry to hear it - I don't mind the ramble